How many foreign secretaries does it take….?

merlotgran

Yammy

eazybee

When hostages return from captivity they given time and privacy to acclimatise themselves before seeing anyone other than immediate family. A charitable interpretation is that she gave an interview too soon.

This is what I implied yesterday and was shot down for .
Terry Waite said as much last week, a quick I,m glad to be back a cursory nod to the enablers. Then disappear to get to know their family again and regain their own equilibrium.
I could not agree with you more eazybee. Well done for putting it so succinctly.

ditto

ditto me also.

I don't think she gave an interview too soon.

She gave a press conference to make sure everybody knew what her point of view was, so that Truss, Johnson & co couldn't elbow their way on to the TV saying how much they'd done to save her.

Clever woman. Shame she's not doing what you expect. Never mind.

Well all the ditto people when you are released after being in captivity for years it’s good to know you will behave irreproachably

Well if my adopted country had been instrumental in securing my release from being incarcerated in the country of my birth, then yes I most certainly would make a big point of thanking the government, even if it did take longer than would have liked.

even if it did take longer than would have liked.

you couldn't make some of this indignation up could you?

“I am so grateful”: those were the four words chosen by Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe after she thanked in turn her family in Iran and the UK, in particular her husband and daughter; politicians; the media; her lawyer in Iran; her friends; her medical team; and the relatives of her fellow prisoners.

Not enough grovelling for you?

Honestly.. is it just because she is not white British she appears to be less worthy of empathy in some peoples eyes ? Why should she thank a government that, on occasions, appear to have exacerbated her situation? Of course Iran was responsible for her incarceration but my goodness our government was tardy in its response.

I think 6 years is a bit longer than most people “would have liked”.

PECS

Honestly.. is it just because she is not white British she appears to be less worthy of empathy in some peoples eyes ? Why should she thank a government that, on occasions, appear to have exacerbated her situation? Of course Iran was responsible for her incarceration but my goodness our government was tardy in its response.

Add the fact that she’s female to that. I’ve often wondered the difference between between being a white person living in this country and being someone of colour but I think I get it now…I’m actually going to report every vile comment I see on Facebook.

MayBee70

PECS

Honestly.. is it just because she is not white British she appears to be less worthy of empathy in some peoples eyes ? Why should she thank a government that, on occasions, appear to have exacerbated her situation? Of course Iran was responsible for her incarceration but my goodness our government was tardy in its response.

Add the fact that she’s female to that. I’ve often wondered the difference between between being a white person living in this country and being someone of colour but I think I get it now…I’m actually going to report every vile comment I see on Facebook.

Yes

People are frightened of strong women, men especially

vegansrock

I think 6 years is a bit longer than most people “would have liked”.

Exactly… oh the empathy ☹️

Note the veiled comments about "adopted country"

I am torn between wishing Nazanin some well deserved quiet time with her family and wanting her to emerge as a political activist.

She is a strong woman who could be very influential, but she must need private time and private space with her husband and child.

I must admit that I, as other posters have written, have found this thread astonishing.

I don’t use much else in the way of social media – I should, because Twitter especially seems to be a major channel of news and opinion, but I don’t. We use the radio for news, we don’t even own a TV.

Someone posted on another thread a few days ago that they would like to be able to block posts by some posters. While this seems on the surface attractive, I’m now even more convinced that we shouldn’t.

Without seeing some of the posts here I would have argued to the death that there is not a single person with such sanctimonious, bigoted and downright nasty opinions such as those I have read in the past few days.

Now I know that, even in a small corner of the internet, there are several. And I woudn’t block them, because I need to know they exist.

Terry Waite, John McCarthy, and Brian Keenan were all incarcerated in Beirut for several years, plus several Americans. All were men, all were white. And two of them with British nationality, one was Irish. These appalling incarcerations happen to men or women, so long as they’re westerners the captors don’t care.

There are still several Americans incarcerated in Iran as we speak.

you've missed the point that was made maddyone
did Terry get abuse when he returned home? and the others?

The experiences of other hostages have been different to that of Nazanin. She’s been under house arrest since March 2020, so with her family in Iran. She’s had plenty of time to plan what she would say when released.

What is different about Nazanin as a hostage was that the image people had of her as perpetuated by the media and by her hubby to some extent was that of a concerned dutiful daughter simply visiting her parents and a loving caring mummy who enjoyed cooking and reading stories. It is no wonder that some people were a bit shocked and surprised even taken aback that she appeared so critical and feisty at the press conference.

RussellHobknobs

What is different about Nazanin as a hostage was that the image people had of her as perpetuated by the media and by her hubby to some extent was that of a concerned dutiful daughter simply visiting her parents and a loving caring mummy who enjoyed cooking and reading stories. It is no wonder that some people were a bit shocked and surprised even taken aback that she appeared so critical and feisty at the press conference.

I don't see the 'qualities' you outlined being in any way incompatible,*RusselHobknobs*.

Since 2002, 779 Muslim men and boys have been held at Guantánamo, nearly all of them without charge or trial. Today, 39 men remain indefinitely detained there, and 27 of them have never even been charged with any crime. 11 Jan 2022

It is not just Westeners that are held hostage.

PECS maybe the Guantanamo detainees could have a thread of their own. I don’t dismiss the point you make, I accept threads meander but I don’t see it as relevant to Nazanin’s

Sorry Iam64 it was in response to a post up thread about only Westerners are ever held hostage... I meant to add the name of the poster & their comment.
I don't want to distract from the core thread about Nazanin, who I think has been dignified and restrained, but was responding to a statement that I felt was wrong.

It was me, and I didn’t say only westerners are held hostage as is claimed. I was referencing the hostage situation in the Middle East. Guantanamo is a separate issue, coming out of entirely different circumstances, and as Iamsays, worthy of a thread of its own.

PECS no need for apologies. Your comment at 08.43 made me think about the Russian anti war demonstrators, the people, trapped in cities in Ukraine being bombed by Putin. Those groups also feel like hostages